J. F. Sebastian, our new Syrian baby.. - Page 2

aaronjb · 02-07-2013, 03:22 PM

Digga get's the points for knowing the origin of his name - sadly there's no prizes available..

Tonight J.F. is being very shy and not wanting to come out of his eggbox nest that he seems to have grown to love - although when we checked on him he does seem to have rather .. well, peed all over it and all over the tissues that smell of Amy. Which worries us a little (being nervous new owners and all) but we can't get him to come out and have a treat to be picked up and looked at; the closest we got was luring him to the edge of his cage base to say hello (briefly) before he went back to being curled up in there.

Hopefully he'll be more eager to come out and play in the morning

[edit] Well, a little while later and he came out on his own - a quick check in his egg box nest and he seems to have designated that the number one peeing and pooping place as he's left a number of nuggets in there for us!

I took the cage off the top of his home and let him listen to me a while and when he had climbed half out of his own accord I offered my hand as a platform and on he climbed, ran around happily in my cupped hands for a little while and then hopped back off to investigate his 'other' nest (the little plastic house that came with the cage).

I think he's responding well - I hope, anyway!

aaronjb · 02-11-2013, 04:06 PM

Well - we went away at the weekend to attend a family get together and left J.F. with a good amount of food and water and hoped he'd be OK.

When we got home he was bright as a button and he'd been having a grand old time in there - he'd moved all the substrate around and made a big burrow, eaten well and drank plenty and, more to the point, was eager to look around and come see us. He even jumped in his ball and went for a roll around the floor for a bit while we cleaned out his cage, put new substrate and bedding in there and gave him a new egg box burrow. We also put in the new Burrow & Play tower that I'd bought him as a present to say sorry for leaving him alone..

Anyway, after last night of him being really bright, playful and inquisitive .. tonight he's gone back to largely hiding under his egg box lid (which he's constructed a burrow under) - he's very reticent to come out even early this morning and tonight, not really interested in treats and seems more interested in hiding

I'm starting to worry a little that we're rearing a human-hating hamster who'll never want to come out and play with us because we did something wrong somewhere along the line..

Kiki_3173 · 02-11-2013, 05:48 PM

Keep an eye on him (of course), but when Darwin has had any change in his routine, he usually takes a day or so to bounce back. I am a teacher & Darwin goes to school with me during the week on Mondays & then comes him on Fridays for the weekend...after each trip, he is usually a little extra sleepy & stays in his nest a little longer on those days. I'm sure that J.F will be just fine.

aaronjb · 02-12-2013, 02:54 AM

You're probably right and it's just the culture shock after we cleaned out his cage and stole his old egg box home (he'd peed in it rather a lot so we weren't just being cruel!

) and gave him new ones..

Last night he wouldn't really come out to play but this morning Amy woke him up gently and fed him his usual food by hand (which he stuffed in his pouches and then hid in his burrow) and we had a little bonding time with him - with the cage top off his home and just the plastic base he came to the edge and hopped into my hands & ran around in them for a while, which was nice

I do find that while most of the taming information I've read says to make tunnels with your hands so he can run through them, he hates that and if I try will 'back up' back out of my hand - but flat hands moved around so he can endlessly run (like some kind of fleshy treadmill) he's cool with..

souffle · 02-12-2013, 03:22 AM

A 'settled' hamster behaves differently from a new hamster who is excited and does not have a routine yet. He may well not get up that much early and late and may be up during the night a lot more are he establishes a routine.
Do what you feel he is comfortable with and if you see him up then offer him the chance to come out.
Keep a close eye that his tummy is OK and there is no looseness in his poops. I'm sure he will soon be fine and tame.

aaronjb · 02-13-2013, 02:25 PM

He's definitely a night time hamster - I presume.. we haven't really seen him up the last day or so, or if he is up (we hear his wheel or pop into his room and he's out of his burrow) he'll go back to his burrow quickly after we enter the room and turn on the lights - I presume that's the lights..

He's eating, drinking and pooping well so I'm fairly sure he's healthy, we're just not really getting much chance to 'tame' him.. I think he'll be a hamster who will eat treats and be fed by hand (he's happy enough to do that if you catch him awake and hungry) but I can't imagine him being the kind who will come out of his cage particularly or be held without a lot of coaxing and waiting..

Ah well - I ordered an Alexander cage and a butt load of houses/toys/giant wheels so at least he'll have a big new house to play in soon, even if he doesn't like us anymore!

[edit] We were wondering if maybe it's a bit cold in his room for him - it's probably 16-18C most of the time, maybe 19C when the heating is on..

aaronjb · 02-16-2013, 03:32 AM

I had a nice long message typed out here just now and then.. closed the wrong tab. Grr.

Anyway, as I was saying - I thought I'd post a couple of cute pictures of J.F. from the other day; before I accidentally dropped him (well, he ran out of my hands - he'd been happily wandering around in them for a while, burrowing in my fingers, when he suddenly shot off faster than my hands could move

) and then annoyed him even more by having to scoop him into his ball before he made a bid for freedom out of the spare bedroom..

Right now he's attacking me if I come to the bars but other than that he seems OK - moving fine, no diarrhoea or anything yet - but I'm keeping an eye on him and feeling incredibly guilty

Anyway.. pictures!

AliKati · 02-16-2013, 05:51 AM

Don't worry, he'll get over it. These "mishaps" happen, I sure had run-ins with my hamster when I first started. Just give him a little time to settle again and yes, treats are always a good way to bribe him.

In terms of temperature, just ensure he has plenty of bedding material, which could be made with shredded toilet paper, and he will build himself a big nest that will keep him warm.

AliKati · 02-16-2013, 05:51 AM

By the way, he's gorgeous and the name is great!

aaronjb · 02-18-2013, 03:57 AM

He does seem to have forgiven me - well, mostly, anyway.. at least he doesn't attack me now, just gives me the stinkeye

Funny you should say he'll build a nest - the last couple of nights he started doing just that; big volcano like things filled with bedding and him sitting in the top of them. Although now he's been moved to his big new cage (see thread in the housing forum) so he gets to do all that again